Battle Log

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Philippines Short Term Missions

The Philippines Trip is Complete!

I’m sitting in the international airport in Manila as I write this. Joshua, March and Chris left in the morning. The rest of the team then went to the University of the Philippines (UP) for the morning outreach and lunch. I then left for the airport while Ryan, Bekk, Paul, Mark and Tanush stayed for an afternoon outreach. They will have dinner and then head to the airport for their flights.

Wow, has this trip gone quick. I’ve probably already mentioned this in my reports, but when you put your head down and focus on the task at hand: sharing the gospel - time just flies by. And there has been so much opportunity. Even when the public transport strike interrupted our plans, there were still plenty of people around for us to talk to.

And I have to say it again, I just praise God for answering our prayers and giving us amazing connections with the church in Manila to serve alongside - esp. Rock of Refuge Church. Your dedication to the outward focus of the church: reaching the lost is so encouraging. We have learnt from you, as we hope you have learned from us. May connections and partnerships between churches like this continue to grow for the sake of proclaiming the gospel, for the glory of God alone.

So, I’ll give a summary of the last 2 days of outreach from my perspective.

Yesterday half the team were at UP in the morning, while the other half had an opportunity to share the gospel with a large group of High School students, and then we were all at QC Gardens in the afternoon.

At UP I was paired up with a young man called Mark (not the Mark from NZ). We focused on conversations rather than tract distribution, due to the lack of people due to classes being online. Mark had some great opportunities to share the gospel, as did I - but I faced resistance. The first young man just wanted to focus on this life, and didn’t want to think about the afterlife. I gently worked to show him the folly of this thinking, but he was insistent, and we parted ways.

The highlight chat of the morning was also with someone very resistant. He was a professor. He declared that he believed in reincarnation, but it became very clear early in the conversation that he simply wanted to believe whatever made him happy. He wanted to be his own god. The conversation became quite heated (from his side) - but I was up for it, as was he. He calmed himself as we continued to engage. I shared the law and the gospel, but it was quite an apologetics battle. After a while, I noticed a change in him, he all of a sudden wanted to express his deep respect for Jesus, and the religion of his roots: Roman Catholicism. We discussed / wrestled through many things. To end the conversation he expressed his interest in the way I was talking. He had always seen religion as illogical, and something you just (blindly) believe. But I was arguing that, without God you can’t have logic, and logic transcends religion and culture so that we have no excuse about knowing the truth of God. To end the conversation, I offered a tract, but he refused it. “I’ll only leave it on my desk, and it will gather dust”. I pleaded with him to take it. “I’ll be praying that God convicts you of your sin, and one day you pick up that tract and read it to remember the good news”. Sadly he still rejected it. I pray that God would continue to bring Christians into his life to continue sharing the law and the gospel with him. I pray that God would grant him repentance. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.


While I was at UP: Ryan, Bekk, Tanush and Mark were sharing the gospel with high school students, as per the pictures.

In the afternoon I was paired up with Michael. We had some wonderful chats. The 2 highlights were with 1) a group of 3 High School students. As I laboured with them on the gospel, one of them finally came to understand when he said, “but if that’s true, then someone can simply trust that Jesus died for them, and then do whatever they want!”. I was able to use the fireman analogy to explain why we don’t want to do that. 2) a young atheist. We laboured with him - he outwardly refused the gospel, but I could see he was challenged, esp. with the building builder analogy.

This morning at UP I was paired up with Nico, again, not many students, but we were still busy for the whole outreach. We had 2 main conversations for most of the 2 hours. The first was with a young couple: his name was Ed. It was a long chat, where I was able to spend time using the check questions to make sure they were really understanding. He took a gospel of John.

And my final chat of the trip was with Jed. A law student who is a staunch Catholic. He was very polite, but argued every point and wouldn’t back down. Yet, there was a deep interest there. He is studying the Bible weekly with someone on campus, and he connected with me on Insta (needgod.net7) so we can continue the chat.

Well, that’s enough from me! Can express how good this trip has been, ministering the gospel, with the church here in Manila. God willing, we will be able to return again soon!


 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 8/3/2023 from 1300-1500

Today, again I served solo at Sunnybank so I prayed for fewer but deeper conversations. God answered my prayer. Basically, I was led to share with a Filipino couple who came here on a working visa. They had been waiting for their route of bus for a while already but I was still moved to approach the husband, Peter. Firstly, I tried to connect with him through my rare trips to Manila many years ago, but mentioning about OPN 513 team which is now serving in Manila doing same street outreach like me doing here. He showed interest and appreciation of what we are doing here and there in his home country. I tested the water saying Philippine is generally recognized as a Catholic country and ask if he professes Catholic faith and he straight ahead admit he is a Catholic Christian. So I switched testing his assurance of salvation which he failed utterly flat and square. He is not sure if he can go to heaven and claimed that all he can do is to be a good person even before I brought up the "Good Person " tract to challenge his thinking. When I asked how good you have to become to earn your way to Heaven, then he noticed Jesus still play a role in our salvation. Then I further challenged him if he thought the redemptive work of Jesus dying for us to take our place to receive the punishment of our sins is effective enough? He of course answered that it should be effective enough, then I asked why you still think you have to rely on more good works to earn your way to heaven. It was clearly stipulated in the Bible Eph 2:8-9 that it is solely because of the work of Jesus and not because of our good deeds so all we have to do is to accept Jesus' salvation by grace through faith in Him and Him alone. I used the story about the Story Bridge to demonstrate, good work can never use to offset crime. Story Bridge actually bears the name of the donor Mr Story who was a wealthy man doing a lot of charity including donating the building of the Story Bridge and donating the land in St Lucia for the founding of University of Queensland. The motive behind was to ease his guilt of murdering another fortune explorer from NSW in the early 1900. He killed that guy and robbed him of 9 Sterling Pound which become his capital fund and made him rich. He and his family kept it as a secret and only was disclosed 30 years after his death. I asked Peter if he disclosed his murder crime while he was alive, will he be able to appeal for waiving the charge of murder because of all the great charity work he had done. The answer was obviously negative. Similarly, I asked
Peter would he thought his good work can compare to Mr Story donating Millions of Dollars for charity and social community welfare purpose. If not, would he think it is enough to offset the sins that he and us the human as sinners have committed so far and throughout our life. The answer is obviously, not. So I helped him to establish that good deeds never will count in term of salivation and acquiring eternal life by admission to the heaven Kingdom right away at the moment we admit and accept Jesus as our Savior and the Lord of our life as per Eph 2:8-9. And on this basis, God further promises to make us a perfect masterpiece or unique arts of human life created firstly by the work of redemption of Christ. Then our life will be transformed step by step, day by day towards perfection by doing His work. It means our redeemed born-again life will bound to return back to perfection if we choose to walk with God and to lead a life on mission with God. As long as we have those correct awareness and understanding of the plan of God, we will not be misled to feel unsure and not confident to be able to admitted to our eternal home readily prepared by Jesus.

The timing was just good and the bus came after I finished my sharing and clarification with Peter.

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Philippines Short Term Missions

We are 3 quarters of the way through our evangelism trip to the Philippines!

There is a public transportation strike happening this week, and so some of the universities we were to minister at are running online classes only.

Today we were at the University of the Philippines (UP). Sadly not many people around. BUT, we are not going to let that stop us. As long as there are a few people around, there are conversations to be had!

I was paired up with Joshua today. We prayed that God would lead our steps and allow us to glorify him with many conversations today. He answered our prayer! I thought about which direction might have the most people, and I decided to go in the opposite direction. All the other Christians out sharing would be going that way.

Instantly we were in our first chat, with 2 older gentlemen and a younger guy. Then some medical students.

And then a cyclist went past (he delivers food for Grab, pictured). As he was biking past, I asked him our usual opening question. He stopped to respond, and we fell into a very good gospel conversation. He heard the law and the gospel, and I was working through check questions when I asked: “So, if someone says to you, ‘I believe that Jesus died on the cross, but I think I’m going to heaven because I’m a good person’, where would they end up, heaven or hell?”. He thought about it for a while, and then gave a slight nod. He was still thinking good deeds would get him to heaven! I had to back up and labour with him to understand that being good can’t save him. He was quite shocked, but I think he eventually came to see how it made sense and was truly good news!

I had an encouraging chat with a young man who had obviously received a gospel tract recently, he knew that he didn’t meet the standard of the law, and he understood that anger is like murder in the heart already. He was also familiar with the gospel, so I laboured with him to see the seriousness of his sin and why he needed the gospel urgently. Gospel tracts do get read!

Next we encountered a couple of marine biology students. One of them engaged me, and said that after we die, our atoms are just recycled! I gave him the building builder analogy and it struck him, from this moment on, all his Christian background came out - he was answering my questions flawlessly. He already knew the gospel, but he hadn’t repented (believed it).

Joshua had the final chat before lunch. In spite of the lack of people, we still had a busy couple of hours of ministry.

After lunch we were at the shopping mall near the university. I had an amazing chat with two young men. Again, I had to labour with them to get them to realise it’s not their good deeds that save them, but Jesus alone. They seemed genuinely stoked by the end of the chat, and were willing to pose for a pic taken by Pastor Jeff.

To finish the outreach, I distributed some tracks to some motorcycle cart drivers while Joshua shared the gospel with one of them, and Pastor Jeff shared with another group of them. Joshua and I then went for a wander down the road, and found 2 high school age boys willing to talk. One spoke good English, so I talked to him, and Joshua spoke with the other in Tagalog. Pictured is from my BeReal.

God honoured our feeble efforts in providing many opportunities to declare his gospel, in spite of the transport strike! There is so much gospel opportunity, be encouraged to go out and engage!

Please keep us in prayer for the final 2 days of outreach and then the long travel home. SDG!
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

B

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday March 7th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was a pretty hot afternoon, especially at the Toowong bus stop with great radiating heat form the heated concrete surrounding. People tended to hide from the sun and the heat behind the bus stop shade. Again, God answered our prayer to face many Mainlanders with a softened heart. It seems that after the end of the zero-case policy, and the subsiding of the pandemic in China, there is a great flux of student from China especially those coastal provinces. Actually, I met consecutively two students from the same Suzhou city in Jiangsu. I also met people of other nations from India, PNG, Singapore, and local Aussie etc. The result of today was considered fruitful and smooth.

1) I chatted with the young man at the end of the long queue who is from Suzhou, Jiangsu. I built rapport with him through my experience of visiting his home town 50 years ago. He is a fresh graduate arriving just 3 weeks. He was a willing listener of the Gospel with reasonably good interaction. It was a pit she did not want to leave his name at the end. (???? ,??,??,????)

2) Surprisingly, the 2nd person I approach was also from Suzhou.(???.??) She is also a fresh graduate by the name of Hsia, arriving just a few week. She appeared also very opened minded and receptive to the gospel.

3) Then I spotted Winnie trying to chat with Fiona the Catholic lady once had deep conversation and tried to invite me to talk to her Catholic Father. She recognized me instantly and tried to catch up if I had done any follow up study. I said yes, I did discuss all the controversial issue with my CUHK classmate now migrated to Canada. He is a very pious and decent Catholic believers but he himself cannot explain the proposition that Mary was near Saint, if not goddess as Jesus’ mother. The arrival of the bus cut short our mutual updating of status.

4) Isaac Paul is an Indian Christian from a Christian family. He quickly identified himself as Christian but failed right away the Assurance of Salvation test that he utterly has no assurance of salvation at all. I clarified a d pray that he from now on can stand firmly on his bottom-line faith in Christ.

5) Then I caught up with a girl form Henan, China. She has been in Australia for 3-4 months already. She also was very opened mind to listen to all the gospel sharing with a softened heart(?????. ?????)

6) Then I tried to connect with an old man of age 82 whom I thought is from China. Yet he pretended to be a Japanese speaking person seemingly tried to cut off the conversation. But I could respond in Japanese, so he finally stopped pretending and resumed talking with me in Mandarin. He is actually from Singapore but could really speak 7 languages. He used to be a university lecturer but now retired. I turned back on to the gospel and he seemingly is not a Christian but claimed that Johnny had spoken with him before. I nevertheless still tried to follow up on his current understanding of the issue of sin and salvation by Jesus alone by faith through grace, yet the bus came just now.

(?82 ?????????????????… ?? Johnny)

7) Finally I caught up with Yewleaf from PNG who came to Australia in 2015 and is now in her final year in UQ. She quickly identified herself as a Christian and is familiar with Yasmin. I anyway tested her assurance of salivation right away and she passed the test with 100% assurance of salvation.

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Philippines Short Term Missions

Wow, we are over half way through the trip already! Time goes fast when you have your head down and working hard in service of our great king and lord, Jesus!

And it has been such a joy working with the members of Rock of Refuge Church. Today we had a wonderful time of hospitality and fellowship with them. And their dedication in evangelism during this trip has encouraged me so much! It’s been such a pleasure to work alongside them.

I’m going to briefly write about Saturday’s outreach. We had a wonderful time of outreach at the University of the Philippines in the morning. And then in the afternoon we were at some gardens where families gather. I was paired up with Alvin. It was a joy to watch Alvin so calmly and confidently approaching strangers and getting conversations started. He was gentle and used questions to keep people engaged. He was an expert in language switching between Tagalog and English to keep me involved. We had some great chats. But there were distractions and sometimes a bit of a lack of engagement from those we were talking to.

The outreach was nearing its end when we approached a group of young people. Alvin handed out tracts, and I decided to show one of the guys my flip chart and asked him who he thought was ‘good’. He instantly engaged. And wow what a chat. I think I had to go back to the law once to clarify why we are not good enough for heaven, and then I was able to move into the false ways. He seemed impacted. When I finally revealed the only way to heaven: Jesus, he was visibly and audibly impacted. It clicked! It made sense to him. So, I then immediately moved into checking questions. He got the “sin again” question right, which was an encouraging sign. He stumbled on the “2 things” check, but this only turned it into a powerful teaching opportunity. “Ohhhhhh” he said as the gospel message was reinforced.

I then moved to the important concept of repentance (in regard to sin) using the fireman analogy. The “what would you say” check allowed me to use the “water via the straw analogy” to clarify that it’s not our faith that saves us, but through our faith IN Jesus. He nailed the “out of 100” check, and then I challenged him to respond to the gospel. He seemed genuinely happy for the conversation and to have heard the gospel, and this filled me with immense joy!

To finish off, I asked him about his friends (near to us) - what about them, what would they think they have to do to go to heaven? “Be good”. So, where would they go if they died? “Hell”. So what can you do to help them? “Tell them what you told me”. Right! He wanted some tracts to share - he requested 10!

His name was Prince. Please pray that he would be convicted and converted. And if so, that God would get him into a good church (he knows how to get in touch). I left him with a copy of the gospel of John.

The check questions we use are a powerful tool in making sure those we share with understand the gospel. If you would like to learn more about what these check questions are and how to use them in your gospel conversations, please check out this document: https://tellmeconference.org.nz/gospel-flipchart/
 

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Philippines Short Term Missions

I’m pretty tired having spent a day travelling to Manila, Philippines from Christchurch, New Zealand and then a full first day of outreach in Manila.  But I’m going to try to write a short report to let you all know how things are going.  In short, IT’S AMAZING!

 

As soon as I entered the arrival hall at the airport in Manila, I felt like I was ‘home’.  Before Covid-19, I had been travelling to Yangon, Myanmar twice a year - and there are so many similarities between Yangon and Manila.  If I was to highlight the 2 major differences I’ve noticed so far it would be: 1) Roman Catholicism vs Buddhism as the major religion (when you boil them both down, that’s not really a difference though) and 2) most people speak English.

 

I had 3 gospel tracts with me to give away during my travel day.  The first went to the guy sitting next to me on my flight from Christchurch to Sydney - we had a short law and gospel chat.  The next went to a guy that Mark witnessed to in Sydney airport (he is FIlipino and on the same flights as us).  And the last tract was used on the taxi ride to our hotel after arriving in Manila - it was a special chat.

 

The taxi driver said he was considering cancelling our pick up, but he decided not to.  As we swung the conversation to, “what happens after life?”, he said he would be going to hell and there was no hope for him.  He thought this because he was part of a Christian cult (INC - Iglesia Ni Cristo) that had booted him out, and there was no hope of ‘salvation’ outside of this cult.  Mark and I were able to gently labour with him that salvation was available to him, and that it was a gift.  He said our conversation may be an answer to his prayers.  My last tract went to him!

 

The daily schedule for this trip is going to be: 2 hours online, 2 hours on the street, lunch, then 3 hours on the street.  Today’s outreach was very encouraging.  It was great to join a big local group, from local churches, at a university campus.

 

I was really excited to be out witnessing, and I was glad for the adrenaline to get me through the day!  My first chat was with someone with an Anglican background, next a Roman Catholic, next a Mormon, and then I started encountering people with subtle resistance to the idea of an after life.  All heard the gospel.  I had so many gospel chats today, and met many interesting people.  Ploughing and sowing.  Gay pride is visible on the campus, and a big mural on the road said “Defend Academic Freedom”, this became a conversation starter for many of my chats at the end of the day.  I had a long conversation with a couple of Sociology students who had been studying world religions.  By the end of the chat, they were subtly yet respectfully resisting what I was saying, because they loved their sin.  I didn’t back down on the truth of the Bible, and that sin was sin.  I warned them, and pleaded with them to accept the mercy of God - the one who logically get’s to set the rules.

 

My last chat was going really well, the guy seemed very convicted and concerned about his soul, and I had shared the gospel and was working through checks when a friend came and told him he needed to get to classes, killing the conversation.  I then noticed he tried to pull a person away from a gospel chat with Paul and Chris.  He was plucking away seeds!  It was interesting that he was trying to get people to class, and yet he didn’t go to class himself!  I had an opportunity to respectfully  follow up with him on that - he didn’t want to talk, “I don’t know English well”, but he accepted tracts, 1 in English and 1 in Tagalog.

 

Please continue to keep the team in prayer!  I will try to continue writing regular reports. :)

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 1/3/2023 from 1300-1500

Again, I did solo today at Sunnybank with everybody else not available. Curiously and interestingly, majority of chat today were with Chinese from Mainland China, and most of them are UQ students but coming here for shopping of Chinese food. Another unusual phenomenon was that most of the Mainlanders were not that stone heart and appeared mostly open for chat. Recap below is the Battle Log.

1) First, I was led to a girl from Huang Gun Hubei near Wuhan. ???????? It once was a heave pandemic casualty town. The girl was very open to chat and show receptiveness to the gospel message, acknowledging that human are imperfect and beyond redemption. All she needs is to make a last step of faith to accept Jesus as her Saviour and Lord of life.

2) Then I connected with Leah who initially did not want to tell me her name and where she is from. But once I shared with her my China ministry during 2008 -2015, she was able to identify with my heart and love for China so she was all opened to listen to the full Gospel endorsing all the points conveyed and left me her name at the end.

3) Next was a young man sat next to us listening up to most of the conversation with Leah. He also showed rare acceptance to chat and we got hook up right away because of my past China ministry in Sichuan with Chengdu the hub of our ministry. As he is from ??????> He has been in Australia for four years finishing his undergraduate in Engineering and is not in postgraduate study. He also shared the same view of the gospel message that human race is beyond redemption apart from Jesus.

4) Then I turned to my right to talk to a Chinese young lady but she did not want to show any response to my approach because of her Local Aussie boyfriend. So instead, I talked to the Local Aussie who seemed to have a lot of prejudice on faith, He clarified with me if I am evangelical Christian as such, he felt a bit relax to chat though still with many pre-occupied and biased understanding about Christianity.

5) Then I approach the only person left after a bus came to take all people away, she was eating a pear as her lunch. So I briefly share the nutshell of Gospel and left her to finish her "Lunch".?????

6) Then another very pleasant chat was with a young man called Chen from Beijing. He is also an UQ student who has just arrived to Brisbane for 3 days. ???.????.??? He also show very openness to Gospel though the sharing was cut short.

7) Finally, I approached two young man from Mainland China who initially had some reservation to chat. Again, the Spirit softened their heart to listen on till the bus came. They are also UQ students but came for Chinese stuff shopping.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Feb 28th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

Today was quite hot. Everybody hid behind the bus station shed. Bus frequent arrival made toady gospel sharing a bit difficult. We anyway still managed to reach out to as many people as possible including those initially reluctant ones. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First I was led to approach a man from China who initially pretend to be non-Chinese speaking. After I switched to English, he then spoke with me in Chinese. but in a very unfriendly manner expressing his dislike to talk about religious issue. I guided him to treat it as a cross cultural life issue and shared a bit of my own life testimony. At the end, the Spirit did soften his heart to listen to the gospel in full. It was surprised his bus did not turn up after a long long while. After I finished my sharing and switch to share with next person, I noticed he was reading the tract attentively. Praise be to the Lord for answering our prayer.

2) Then I connected with a young man from Norway. He quickly indicated he is a Christian. But he his assurance of salvation is only 90% which was clarified.

3) Next, I caught up with two Fijian ladies of Hinduism background. Yet they were both open to the gospel and appeared both a good two listener. I just managed to shared with them the conclusion that no one can go to heaven unless you are perfect and gave them both a tract.

4) Sauron is a Australian born Scandinavian boy still ding grade 11 at SMT private college. He is open to gospel and appeared fully receptive to the need of the salvation of Jesus.

5) Then I approached a Canadian of Vietnamese background. He was open to the gospel and took a tract when the bus came quickly.

6) Then I connected with a Girl from cairn but her origin is from PNG with Netherlands blood. Again she is a very open to gospel and show receptiveness to the salvation of Jesus.

7) Finally I shared gospel with an Indian lady who was also open to gospel.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

We ran another special outreach this week (Saturday): the Kaikoura A&P Show outreach.  And we had some special people join us for outreach this week (Friday): Kane & Damo all the way from Brisbane!  So good to have them with us!

But I’ll start the report with Tuesday afternoon’s outreach to Riccarton.  Roger was down sick, so I got to set up my flip chart on his side of the street.  :D  I had 3 significant chats.

The first was with a young man down from the Hawkes’ Bay.  He is starting university in Christchurch.  It was a good chat in the sense that he was open to hearing the law and the gospel and going through all the check questions.  He seemed to respond positively, but he hedged a bit when I got him to count the cost in this life of accepting the gift of eternal life.  I can’t save him, only God can!

Next I had a long chat with a streetie.  Sadly, she loved the sound of her own voice.  She talked a lot!  So self absorbed.  I didn’t give her the gospel, she was obviously not ready for it.  When I had opportunities to speak, I would gently but directly labour the law of God into her life, trying to reignite her conscience.  Eventually she got tired of being challenged, and decided to move on.  She did take a tract.  I saw her again on Friday in the city, but I was in a chat and wasn’t able to follow up with her.

The last chat was with 3 teen girls.  They accepted tracts on their initial pass, but my question of “what happens after life” was cheekily rebuffed!  Yet, a minute later, they came back, they wanted to talk, and they each had a machine gun of questions to fire at me.  It was a bit overwhelming!  But the questions were very good ones, showing they cared deeply about life, and what happens after life.  As the conversation progressed, I was of course sharing the law and the gospel.  But we finally hit the two hardest questions: 1) evil and suffering and 2) homosexuality.  I actually felt honoured that they trusted me enough to ask about what were obviously very sensitive questions for them.  I did my best to give them answers that were: compassionate, yet faithful to the truth.  It’s only the truth that sets us free!  Sadly, they weren’t able to give me the time to do the subjects justice - they had to leave; I did my best.  One of the girls had been twisting her tract as we were talking.  She accepted another that she could read.

Friday poured with rain!  Yet, we had a team of 6, and it was an awesome outreach in spite of the rain.  There were heaps of people out and about, and everyone was making the most of the sheltered spots where we were able to spark up chats.

I heard a wonderful report from Roger, who had a fantastic chat with a guy who’s flight had been delayed and was wandering the city aimlessly till he encountered Roger.  They guy was so impacted by the gospel conversation, that he headed back to his hotel room to start reading a Bible!

I was paired up with Damo, and he needed to go to the bathroom before we started, so I took him to where some were.  As he was going in, 2 guys passed and I asked them, “hey, what do you think happens after life?”  They were keen to chat, and stopped to engage.  But, as I was talking to them, a streetie who knew me passed, and wanted to talk.  He waited in line!  Damo came back, and I passed the 2 guys to him (pictured), while I addressed the streetie.

Damo’s chat was much longer than mine, and so I ended up going to Lichfield street to see if I could get into a chat there.  Four Catholic high school students went past, and I had a fantastic chat with them.

Damo and I then headed back to Cashel Mall and found a spot down by Ballantynes.  We had 2 outstanding chats.

One with a guy who knew all the Christian lingo, but was subtly missing the gospel.  After labouring with him, I could see a breakthrough starting.  At points he seemed to almost come to tears.  And he left saying we had given him something to consider.

The other was with a young couple (also going to a Catholic high school).  The guy looked so happy, he said, “I’ve seen others being asked that question, but no one has ever asked me”.  It turns out he was very familiar with Ryan via TikTok!  He was very deep in thought throughout the chat, often with a distant look, and often taking a long time to answer questions as he processed what he was learning.  It was so good.  By the end of the chat, I could tell they were taking what we were sharing seriously.

Kaikoura is two and a half hours north of Christchurch, so it was an early start for the team of 5.  It was so good to have Andy, Mike, Jerome and Elijah with me for the drive up.  We were joined by a team coming down from Blenheim, led by Scott.

It was raining when I left home, but, although the ground was very damp, the rain held off for the whole outreach at the Kaikoura A&P Show.

This show wasn’t as busy as some of the others we attend, and yet, there were still plenty of opportunities to engage people with the good news of Jesus.  I’m running out of time to talk about the details of some of those chats.  But the highlight for me was having opportunities with the type of people who wouldn’t normally give me the time of day.  One farmer stayed to hear the law before bailing on me (the fact that I got that far was amazing).  Another elderly couple stayed to hear the gospel, but there was such a hardness that my very first check was answered with “be good”.  Again, I was amazed they stayed as long as they did.  I hope I left a pebble in their shoe, and that God turns it into a rock!  While we have breath, there is hope, God can do what is impossible for us.  They left with tracts.

Susan joined me for the Sunday afternoon outreach in central Christchurch.  It was a busy outreach, and so the time went fast.  Some very encouraging chats with some High School kids, who were challenged to urgently trust Christ, yet left thinking deeply while counting the cost.  Also a great chat with a young man from Australia among other chats.  Out of time!

A small team from Australia and New Zealand is heading to the Philippines to hopefully be an encouragement to the church there in evangelism.  We leave on Tuesday for just under 2 weeks of outreach.  Please keep us in prayer!  I intend to keep writing reports, keep your eye out for them here or on Facebook.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 22/2/2023 from 1300-1500

I had to go solo again as no other gospel co-workers was available today. In Sunnybank the usual reject rate was high. I could manage to have a few chats and I had to move around to the other side to look for gospel targets. I also took pictures of all those possible evangelism sharing points to be shown to a God raised mission oriented Chinese Church for their Street outreach evening scheduled on March 17 Friday evening 7-9pm.

One encouraging divine encounter was with Ms King from Hong Kong that we have met two times before. It was really not by coincident that God let us meet to follow up on her inner faith journey transiting toward the eventually salvation faith.

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